About The Organisation

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMISSION

The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) was initially created through Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) promulgated in 2002. Constitutional amendment 19 0f 2009 elevated it to a Constitutional Commission.

Constitutional Amendment 20 of 2013 reaffirmed the status of the Commission with expanded mandate powers over regulation and development of the media in Zimbabwe. The first Board of Commissioners under the Constitutional Amendment 19 took office in February 2010 through the gazetting of names of members by His Excellency President R.G. Mugabe during the tenure of Government of National Unity (GNU). The tenure of the Board of Commissioners is five years.

The Board consists of nine members. Both the chairperson and the other eight members are appointed by the President in consultation with the Standing rules and Orders Committee of Parliament.

Commissioners are chosen on the basis of their integrity and their competence in administration and their knowledge and understanding of the human rights issues as well as best practices in media matters.

When appointing the Board of Commissioners, the President takes into consideration gender and regional representation issues as provided by the Constitution.

CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE

The Constitution provides for the broad mandate of the Commission as follows:

(a) to uphold, promote and develop freedom of the media;
(b) to promote and enforce good practices and ethics in the media;
(c) to monitor broadcasting in the public interest and, in particular, to ensure fairness and diversity of views broadly representing Zimbabwean society;
(d) to encourage the formulation of codes of conduct for persons employed in the media and, where no such code exists, to formulate and enforce one;
(e) to receive and consider complaints from the public and, where appropriate, to take appropriate action against journalists and other persons employed in the media or broadcasting who are found to have breached any law or any code of conduct applicable to them;
(f) to ensure that the people of Zimbabwe have fair and wide access to information;
(g) to encourage the use and development of all the officially recognised languages of Zimbabwe;
(h) to encourage the adoption of new technology in the media and in the dissemination of information;
(i) to promote fair competition and diversity in the media; and
(j) to conduct research into issues relating to freedom of the press and of expression, and in that regard to promote reforms in the law.

Powers and Functions of the Commission according to the Act

Constitution Amendment 20 provides for the enactment of legal instruments to deal with access to information, regulation of the media and discipline of journalists. The current legal instrument dealing with the above is the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act which elaborates the functions of the Commission as follows:

To uphold the freedom of the press; and

To promote and enforce good practice and ethics in the press, print and electronic media, and broadcasting; and

To ensure that the people of Zimbabwe have equitable and wide access to information; and

To ensure the equitable and development of all indigenous languages spoken in Zimbabwe; and

To comment on the implications of proposed legislation or programmes of public bodies on access to information and protection of privacy; and

To comment on the implications of automated systems for collection, storage, analysis or transfer of information or for access to information or protection of privacy; and

To inform the public about this Act; and

To engage in or commission research into anything affecting the achievement of the purposes of this Act; and

To conduct investigations in terms of Part IX to endure compliance with the provisions of this Act; and

To receive, evaluate for accreditation and consider applications for the accreditation of journalists; and

To review the decisions of public bodies in terms of Part X; and

To bring to the attention of the head of a public body any failure to meet the prescribed standards for fulfilling the duty to assist applicants; and

To authorize a public body, at the request of its head, to disregard requests that would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the public body; and

To monitor the mass and raise awareness of the mass media; and

To register mass media in Zimbabwe; and

To investigate complaints against any journalist or mass media service in terms of Part VIIA; and

To make regulations in terms of section 91.

Media Breaches and Complaints Procedures

Section 42A of the Act provides for the establishment of a statutory Media Council under the supervision of the Commission. The Media Council consists of 13 members. Twelve of the members are seconded by various media stakeholders who include the following: